Eight chamber musicians perform next month in Williamsburg

Maggi George has returned to Virginia Opera as statewide director of marketing… (Courtesy Virginia Opera,…)

November 24, 2013|By David Nicholson, dbnicholson@dailypress.com

Mention chamber music, and most folks will think about a string quartet or maybe a piano trio.

But so many other groups of instruments make up this musical genre, such as a woodwind quintet and a string sextet. You can hear similarly different sounds when the New York Chamber Soloists perform in early December as part of the Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg series. Their concert will take place at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the Williamsburg Regional Library.

The program will feature Beethoven's 1799 Septet in E-Flat Major, Op. 20, and Schubert's 1824 Octet in F Major, D. 803. Both are long pieces made up of six movements and have similar instrumentation with Schubert adding a violin.

The chamber soloists are made up of a total of 12 musicians and can expand to 20 for larger works. They have more than 250 works in their repertoire and have had more than 25 compositions written for them by composers such as Gunther Schuller, Mario Davidovsky and Ezra Laderman.

Single tickets are $15 available at the door. For information, call 757-229-0385 or go online to http://www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org‎.

Shakespeare auditions

The Virginia Shakespeare Festival will hold general auditions for its 2014 summer season on the evening of Dec. 11 in Phi Beta Kappa Hall at the College of William and Mary. The 2014 season will include "Julius Caesar" and "Illyria," the musical version of "Twelfth Night."

Interested actors are requested to email virginiashakespeare@gmail.com with the subject line "Williamsburg Audition Request" and to attach a resume and small file headshot. Those auditioning should prepare 16 bars of a song (accompanist provided, bring sheet music) and one Shakespeare monologue, with total time not to exceed four minutes.

"We are this year also looking for some teenage actors, particularly for 'Julius Caesar,' and so we encourage high school actors in the area to attend our local auditions," says Artistic Director Christopher Owens.

Rehearsals begin on May 27 for "Illyria," and on June 10 for "Julius Caesar." All roles are paid.

For more information, go to the company website at http://www.wm.edu/vsf.

Actor directs CNU operas

Actor/director Greg Thompson is in town to direct two productions for the opera program at Christopher Newport University.

In early December, students will present Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Impresario," with an original book and libretto by Thompson, and Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors." Performances are Friday-Saturday, Dec. 6-7 in the Ferguson Center for the Arts.

Thompson has worked as director, choreographer, actor, singer and dancer for more than 300 theatrical productions throughout the United States.

For 10 seasons, he served as resident stage director and choreographer for the Atlanta Lyric Theatre. In film, he played the photographer in the HBO Original Film "Warm Springs" and earned a best supporting actor award for his work in the indie feature, "Ghost of the Needle." His television work has included roles on "Dawson's Creek" and "One Tree Hill."

He's also scheduled to teach at the 2014 Torggler Summer Vocal Institute, which takes place each summer on the CNU campus.

Arts Fest airings

Virginia Arts Festival and WHRO have begun a new collaboration that will bring the arts festival's historic concerts to the air waves. WHRO¿FM (90.3) will offer a series of 9 p.m. monthly concerts recorded at arts festival performances.

"A few months ago, (festival director) Rob Cross mentioned to me that Virginia Arts Festival had recordings of many of their concerts from over the years, and would we like to broadcast them." says Dwight Davis, WHRO's director of programming. "We jumped at the chance, since the festival has, from the beginning, welcomed world¿class musicians to Hampton Roads for these intimate concerts of great music."

WHRO announcer Raymond Jones will host the concerts airing at 9 p.m. the second Wednesday of each month.

"Our motto will be 'On the Air today, in the seats tomorrow,' as we use the power of classical radio and our ongoing partnership with VAF to attract new audiences," says Jones.

New opera hires

Virginia Opera has hired two key administrators for its statewide operation. Margaret "Maggi" George was named director of marketing and communications and will be based in Norfolk. Howard Bender will serve as central and Northern Virginia director in Richmond.

George returns to the opera having held the same position there from 1993-2000. She worked in a similar position at Virginia Symphony from 2000-2006 and was founding executive director of Lyric Opera Virginia for a brief time.

Bender's career in the music industry has spanned 37 years. A former character tenor with performances at the Metropolitan Opera, he is remembered in Hampton Roads as the founding artistic director of the Portsmouth-based TodiMusicFest. Most recently he worked as director of institutional advancement and external relations for Lorin Maazel's Castleton Festival in Northern Virginia.